Monday, April 19, 2010

St. Maarten

St. Maarten, April 2010. This was certainly a vacation we will never forget!! I look at these pictures often and remember what a wonderful time we had. Enjoy :) -Lacy

Once we FINALLY arrived in Chicago @ the Crowne Plaza Hotel (where we parked our car for the week).. we waited for our shuttle to the airport.

From Chicago, we flew to Philadelphia. Since we had an overnight stay in Philly, we had time to check out the Libery Bell. (Just kidding, this was made of legos and we found it while exploring the Philly airport at 2 a.m.)

We were still in good spirits at this point...

Britton's favorite show: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This show is about three guys who own a bar called "Paddy's Pub".

Saturday, April 3.. after nearly 4 hours on the plane from Philly to St. Maarten, we are starting to see some islands!

I think this was Anguilla.

View from the balcony at our Villa.

Sharon, Meghan & Betsy were dying Easter eggs with Amanda. (Amanda was the daughter of the Villa's caretakers)

The Gathering Place. We played about 10-15 games of Bananagrams per day!

Not the greatest road system in St. Maarten. Tiny roads, and fast drivers.

Night 1 of Fettucini Alfredo. There was a joke each night whether I would order chicken or fettucini since I'm not a fish or seafood fan.

This group was running on about 1 hour of sleep! (Except for Bryon, he managed to sleep for about 5 hours at the airport and on the plane)

The pool at our Villa, with wonderful views of the hills and ocean.

The Wolf (& Gram) group at Orient Beach. Orient Beach stretches across the Dutch/French border. Club Orient (where the nude people hang out) lies on the French side. We had to make the trek to the other side.. & the two gentlemen playing Paddlepall was enough for me.

The boys.

The scenery was beautiful.

le String Beach Bar... where the hamburgers look like jello. (That's what the billboard should have read)

Jacque, Bryon and Britton hanging out at the bar.

Guana Bay. Our Villa was about a 5 minute walk from this beach.

A view of our Villa from the beach.

Another view from the beach.

Britton's artwork.

I had never seen water this clear!

An afternoon at the Airport Beach Bar. "DANGER: Jet blast of departing and arriving aircraft can cause severe physical harm resulting in extreme bodily harm and/or death." That didn't stop us from going to stand behind a departing plane.. (I have some videos from arriving and departing planes that I'll post)

A plane coming in.

Another one.

The 747 Air France. This flight comes in once a day. The 1 mile of runway is barely enough for this huge plane!

Arriving planes of the day.

The Catamaran! We stopped at various islands and bays around St. Maarten.

Britton and I.

Again.

This was before we hit the big waves.. he eventually moved.

Another catamaran we anchored next to. On the other side of us was the "Tiki Tiki", a nudist boat.

Our snorkeling spot!

The gang! Tough day..

Beautiful.

The Yellow Beach Bar @ Happy Bay.. our last stop of the day.

The whole gang..

The Wolf boys with Aaron.

Me and my hunnie!

The girls of week 2.

The boys of week 2.

Me & Jacque, we were twins all week with our matching cover-ups.

Goodbye Catamaran... Stephan and Stan (our captains) are waving from the boat.

Delicious pizza, but we never saw Mama.

Waiting for our pizza.

I would love to have that house under construction. View of the bay from our Villa.

Britton and Bryon attempting to use the boogyboards... waves were a little rough.

Crash and burn.

Britton and I. I look taller than him..

The neighbors had roosters running around their yard.

We clean up nice :)

Bryon, Jacque, me and Britton.. before heading to dinner.

The only day I made it up for sunrise.

6:00 a.m.

View from the hills.

A cruise ship docked in Phillipsburg.

Britton and I hung out at the beach while everyone else went shopping.